Halfway through the summer!

I'm not even going to look at the previous post to see how long it's been since I last blogged. I know it's been a while. I seem to blog in fits and spurts. It's too bad it isn't Tuesday, I could to a Tuesday ten about what we've been up to. Okay, i looked, was it really January?? There's even more than I realized.

Why not, I'll do a 'ten' anyway. What we've been up to the last couple months.

1. Took a trip to visit my family in Syracuse. That was a wonderful trip:

Howe Caverns on the way there, which is the first place I remember going with the four children where they were all engaged and interested - I mean a place that isn't obviously geared towards children, like the zoo or - oiy - something like Six Flags.

Then two lovely days with family (even though Andrew got sick - and of course this started a trickle effect where all four kids ended up sick) - a Fourth of July concert by the SSO. I got to celebrate my birthday with "my" extended family (think mine as opposed to dh's), which is always extra special for me - birthdays are never quite as birthday-ey as they are when I can spend some of it with my dad.

The trip home saw us at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I found it significantely more interesting than I expected (I am not a sports person, although I definitely have my team loyalties) ... unfortunately we also spent so long there that we had to find a hotel rather than finishing the drive home. Neither Mike nor I were all that enamored with the hotel, but the kids found it to be quite the adventure, as this is only the second time they've ever stayed in one.

2. Been sick. Annoying viruses - we had Fifths (including Mike and I - it is not fun for adults) and at least one other virus that caused a fever and a wicked sore throat. This spring was awful for being sick, I think we had someone sick almost non-stop for 3 or 4 months.

3. Band camp. That would be Brendan. Ms. M permitted him to give percussion a go, and he loves it - I hear tappety tappety non-stop. Oh, maybe that's the roofers. More about that later. Band camp was cool.

4. Heritage Days at our church. (Think along the lines of VBS.) It was only three days, but they were a fantastic experience for the kids. Bren was at band camp the first two, but joined the rest of the kids on Saturday.

Which leads us to 5. We found a church. God is good.

6. Brendan needs braces. (Seems like a lot of these are Brendan related. It is indeed a 'growing' summer for him, though ... next summer will likely see 'Brendan & Betsy' stuff.) That whole process officially starts the middle of next month. He's very annoyed - he does NOT want braces in middle school. He's coming around to being resigned, but the day we found out I heard, "Mommy, I'm not going to be able to eat ANYTHING for two years!" on the way home in the car. Yeah. Tweens ...

7. Betsy turned 10!!! That boggles the mind a bit. We had two birthday parties, one for family and one with her friends. She's actually had an eventful summer, too, although hers has been more along the lines of "Oh boy let's call the pediatrician type" excitement. One trip for a shard of glass in her foot (I wish corelle didn't shatter quite so well), and another when she whacked her head open on the corner of the bathroom sink. Dr. T told her she doesn't want to see her other than her well visits for the next year, lol, she's used up all her visits.

8. All 6 of us have bikes now. This may not seem like a huge deal, but me - well, lets just say I hadn't been on a bike since I was 11. It's been a blast taking them out as a family. I'm still working on being comfortable (it's true you never forget, but that doesn't mean it's easy) on mine, but it's been good to get out and be active as a group.

9. Speaking of bikes, Justin no longer has training wheels. He turns 6 next month. He got a new bike, too (early birthday) and Mike forgot to have them put the training wheels on ... got it home and Justin was willing to give it a try. He's now riding around, using hand brakes and everything, like a champ. He's also had a little 'medical' excitement - he sheered a 3x3.5 section of skin off the back of his leg jumping through a homemade obstacle course (NO, this is not permitted - he waited until I was busy to do this).

10. We're getting a new roof, even as I type this. I actually need to go out and take some more pictures (I've been going out every hour or two) as things progress. It's been ... interesting. Definitely a roller coaster. I"ll devote a whole post to it when the job is done.

11. Okay, I had to add another one. All the kids advanced to the next grade ... I now have a first, second, and fifth grader, as well as a sixth grade who is a (gasp) middle schooler. YIKES.

Baseball also took over April & May. All four kids were in Little League.

There's more but I think those are the big things. I have to be done for now anyway ...